“It takes an earthquake to remind us that we walk on the crust of an unfinished planet.” -Charles Kuralt
If you have ever been in an earthquake, you know that they are not all like what you see portrayed in the movies. I live in Southern California and the potential of the big one happening in my lifetime is one of the main reasons I began to take emergency preparedness, a.k.a. prepping so seriously. I’ve lived through enough small ones while living here and it’s a threat that constantly hangs over your head living in this region. The ones I have experienced are localized events that typically last about ten to thirty seconds, but don’t have to be “the Big One” for water, electricity, and gas systems to have failures, so it is essential to prepare for even the low rumblers. A magnitude nine earthquake can last for five minutes or longer and could leave few if any buildings or bridges still standing.
The people who prepare for an earthquake are usually just the people who live in a zone where earthquakes are frequent, but it would be wise to prepare even in zones where earthquakes are infrequent, but fault lines are within the region. If the big one doesn’t occur, though you will see after this video we are long overdue in some areas, you should have an emergency supply kit to adapt to other natural disasters readily.
This blog will cover what an earthquake is and why it is so damaging, the major U.S. faults and seismic zones, and the unknown fault zone humans are activating. In the second video of this two-part video series, I will provide you with just the straightforward basics of what you should put in your earthquake kit. So let’s jump in.
What is an Earthquake and Why Prepare
To understand the type of shake, fault lines are classified. There are many types of faults classified by the movement of the blocks of rock, up, down, left, or right, relative to each other. The specific tectonic process at work with each of the areas I will cover in this video I will address as I define them. The final thing you need to know about earthquakes concerning their classification is their magnitude. Earthquakes are measured by magnitude and intensity. Intensity is a measure of the overall shaking and damage and can vary by location based upon the land’s makeup. The other well-known measurement is the magnitude. This was measured using the Richter scale from one to nine. The Richter Scale only measured the most significant amplitude of a quake, so seismologists have replaced it with the Moment Magnitude Scale, which measures different parts of the earthquake. I t’s based on the Modified Mercalli Intensity scale and lists quakes on a scale of 1 to 12. The Moment Magnitude scale measures the body wave magnitude and surface wave magnitudes and the Richter magnitude at the localized level and then presents a more comprehensive number that defines the wave’s magnitude. There’s a lot that goes into that, so it can be better understood by understanding the numbers one through nine on the Richter scale and the extent of damage that can occur from each of them from the Mercalli scale.
Throughout the world, it is estimated that a half-million earthquakes occur per year. The Earth is constantly shifting, but most of these movements go undetected because their magnitude is low or it occurs in remote places. When it comes to low magnitude, a magnitude one quake, you probably wouldn’t feel anything even if you were sitting still in a stable environment.
The Richter scale goes from one to nine and, not to oversimplify it, but each level is about ten times greater than the level before and has about thirty-three times the amount of energy being released. If you get to nine on the scale, the equivalent energy released is comparable to 20 trillion tons of TNT. The bomb dropped on Hiroshima was between 13 and 15 kilotons, so a nine on the scale is almost inconceivably larger than that historic blast. When you consider there are a thousand thousands in a million, and there are a thousand millions in a billion, and a thousand billions in a trillion, then multiply the whole thing by twenty, and, well…let’ s just say that the Earth is a pretty powerful ball of built-up, kinetic energy. Be thankful that those minor quakes occur, so a big one is less likely.
A Word About Destruction
At level seven, poorly constructed or older buildings will start to see some damage. Level eight and that damage is severe. Only earthquake-reinforced structures will likely sustain no damage. Level nine is severe. Chimneys and factory stacks will fall, and some buildings will collapse. Level ten is extreme; some well-built wooden structures will be destroyed; most masonry and frame structures will be destroyed with their foundations. Gas lines without automatic seismic shutoff valves installed are likely to break. Levels ten, eleven, and twelve are all categorized as extreme. They’re equivalent to a long earthquake at an eight or nine on the Richter scale. At level eleven, broad fissures can open up on the ground, maybe not as extreme as you see in the movies where they’re gobbling people up but still capable of causing radical damage. At level twelve, equivalent to a nine or above, and nothing is left undamaged or possibly even standing. Destruction is total. Every municipal system–water, electricity, gas, sewer, communication, transit, and so on–will sustain damage, interruptions, and possibly systemic failure for an indeterminable length of time. The seismic force waves can be seen traveling across the landscape across the surface, and objects are thrown into the air.
Fortunately, those massive, once-in-a-lifetime quakes are a rarity. Besides the shaking, an earthquake can cause soil liquefaction, landslides, fires, ground ruptures, floods, and tsunamis with dramatic and devastating effects thousands of miles from the epicenter. You may not live in a tsunami zone, but you can imagine how dangerous it could be to you if a gas line is fractured and the roads and bridges are impassable.
Is your plan for any disaster to bug in and stand your ground? If you are adequately prepared, that might work in most disasters. It may not, though, in the aftermath of an earthquake. If your home and all your neighbors’ homes are just piles of rubble on top of a concrete foundation, you may need to leave the area for personal safety and return when fires are out, and water, gas, and electrical lines are repaired or shut off.
Whose Fault Line Is It?
Fracking intentionally causes thousands of small earthquakes of magnitudes smaller than 1 to enhance permeability, but it has also been linked to larger earthquakes. The largest earthquake known to be induced by hydraulic fracturing in the United States was a magnitude four earthquake in Texas. Each earthquake causes pressure to be released off one line and transferred to another line or another plate. Reawakening prehistoric fault lines and adding stress to existing ones is probably not the best practice. Beginning in 2009, Oklahoma experienced a surge in seismicity. This surge was so significant that its rate of magnitude three and larger earthquakes exceeded California’s from 2014 through 2017. Texas had a 4.0 magnitude earthquake as a result of fracking. We don’t know what the possible cumulative effect of these human activity generated earthquakes may be. We know that they occur in areas where the buildings are not hardened off, and the impact of a big earthquake could quickly rise to a catastrophe-level.
Conclusion
Do you live within 500 miles of one of those zones? If a magnitude eight or greater earthquake strikes, you can expect massive destruction in areas not hardened off against earthquakes. Even if you live miles from the epicenter, you can expect services to go offline and possibly even refugees from bordering states. Having an earthquake kit prepared in your prepping supplies will help you if the big one does hit, and you can use it for a host of other disasters or even bug out with it. The next blog in this two-part blog series which I’ll link to in the description section and the cards above.
Have you ever been in a big earthquake? Have old members of your family? If you’re not in the United States, do you have earthquakes in your region?
As always, please stay safe out there.